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"Our Town' at the Arden (4th review)
Steve Cohen
Our integrated (but not color-blind) town
STEVE COHEN
Our Town in Old City – the title used in the advertising– is a celebration of community. It’s also a memorable theatrical experience, even more for its presentation than for the script itself.
Terrence Nolen’s new production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town moves back and forth between the Arden Theatre’s main stage and Christ Church next door. "Townspeople" serve free lemonade and hand out fans to us folks as we stroll from one building to the other, passing the graves of colonial Philadelphians. The church’s bells ring out in commemoration of the wedding of two characters in the play and their beautiful sound fills the surrounding neighborhood. A diverse cast also reflects some of the Philadelphia community.
The casting is bi-racial, but I wouldn’t call it color-blind. Special attention clearly was given to make almost half the town black, with interracial families. Nolen seems to suggest that the play isn’t limited to one region or one race. Accordingly, also, he eschews the New England accent that’s usually used in this play. This cast speaks with the panoply of disparate accents.
But the black townspeople on stage remind me how monochromatic the town and the original play really were. As we learn in the opening scene, Grover’s Corners was "85% Protestant, 12% Catholic; rest, indifferent." There probably were no Jews in town and certainly no blacks, Asians or Hispanics.
A wartime inspiration
So is this town representative of America? That’s what was assumed by audiences as well as the Pulitzer Prize committee members in 1938.
A subscriber seated next to me wondered, just before Act III, why Our Town is considered to be such a landmark. Well, its structure is original, with its lack of props and scenery and its breaking of the fourth wall. But a more important reason is its timing. Our Town and Oklahoma! share a distinction as two very popular plays that inspired Americans of the World War II era (without referring to the war) by showing what purported to be the American spirit and saying, in effect, "This is worth protecting."
Our Town, to be sure, was written four years before the U.S. entered the war. But it was a time when Nazi troops occupied the Rhineland and threatened Czechoslovakia, while English families were being issued gas masks and Americans worried about the future of civilization.
If you doubt that the imminence of war was on the playwright’s mind, think again. Wilder wrote part of Our Town while staying in Zurich, not far from the border of Nazi Germany. That same year, Irving Berlin wrote: "While the storm clouds gather, far across the sea, let us pledge allegiance to a land that’s free” – the verse of God Bless America. Different words, same thought.
Wilder’s skeptical view of marriage
Our Town’s evocation of a small New England town now seems less representative and less gripping than it did then, even to someone like me whose father grew up during those years. (He was roughly the same age as Wilder.) But the script offers other pleasures. Wilder’s skeptical view of marriage, for instance. He portrays it as a restriction of freedom, a necessary burden. The courtship of the teenaged George and Emily is touching, and their wedding-day apprehension shows the universality of young people wanting to grow up while still craving childhood's security.
Another interesting aspect of the play is the character of the choir director, an unhappy bachelor who commits suicide, showing that life in Grover’s Corner was not as carefree as it may appear to be on the surface.
It’s frustrating that the characters are, intentionally, archetypes and are not allowed much development. Just when we find ourselves caught up in the lives of these people, the Stage Manager says, "Thank you," and ushers them off the stage.
Shy smile, glowing eyes
The Arden production is well cast and well acted, especially by Rebecca Blumhagen and Peterson Townsend as Emily and George. Her shy smile and glowing eyes are appealing, while he impresses with his eagerness and fluid body language. Sherri L. Edelen, who has impressed in musical roles at the Arden and the Philadelphia Theatre Company, is outstanding in a straight dramatic role, as is the familiar and dependable Greg Wood.
The cast dazzles with its pantomime of everyday activities, like serving food and ice cream sodas and saddling a horse, accompanied by excellent sound effects.
As the Stage Manager, Eric Hissom is a no-nonsense regular guy. This helps us identify with him, but it misses the frisson that occurs when the part is played by a recognizable favorite like Paul Newman or (in the musical version) Frank Sinatra.
Wilder wrote three questions to be asked by people from the audience, and the Arden is utilizing celebrities each night for those brief lines. At the opening, the three were Governor Edward Rendell, the playwright’s nephew and a pastor of Christ Church. Even more fellowship is induced by the use of local choirs during key scenes. This is an exciting community event, although the local aspects outweigh the play itself.
To read another review by Robert Zaller, click here.
To read another review Anne R. Fabbri, click here.
To read another review by Bob Cronin, click here.
STEVE COHEN
Our Town in Old City – the title used in the advertising– is a celebration of community. It’s also a memorable theatrical experience, even more for its presentation than for the script itself.
Terrence Nolen’s new production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town moves back and forth between the Arden Theatre’s main stage and Christ Church next door. "Townspeople" serve free lemonade and hand out fans to us folks as we stroll from one building to the other, passing the graves of colonial Philadelphians. The church’s bells ring out in commemoration of the wedding of two characters in the play and their beautiful sound fills the surrounding neighborhood. A diverse cast also reflects some of the Philadelphia community.
The casting is bi-racial, but I wouldn’t call it color-blind. Special attention clearly was given to make almost half the town black, with interracial families. Nolen seems to suggest that the play isn’t limited to one region or one race. Accordingly, also, he eschews the New England accent that’s usually used in this play. This cast speaks with the panoply of disparate accents.
But the black townspeople on stage remind me how monochromatic the town and the original play really were. As we learn in the opening scene, Grover’s Corners was "85% Protestant, 12% Catholic; rest, indifferent." There probably were no Jews in town and certainly no blacks, Asians or Hispanics.
A wartime inspiration
So is this town representative of America? That’s what was assumed by audiences as well as the Pulitzer Prize committee members in 1938.
A subscriber seated next to me wondered, just before Act III, why Our Town is considered to be such a landmark. Well, its structure is original, with its lack of props and scenery and its breaking of the fourth wall. But a more important reason is its timing. Our Town and Oklahoma! share a distinction as two very popular plays that inspired Americans of the World War II era (without referring to the war) by showing what purported to be the American spirit and saying, in effect, "This is worth protecting."
Our Town, to be sure, was written four years before the U.S. entered the war. But it was a time when Nazi troops occupied the Rhineland and threatened Czechoslovakia, while English families were being issued gas masks and Americans worried about the future of civilization.
If you doubt that the imminence of war was on the playwright’s mind, think again. Wilder wrote part of Our Town while staying in Zurich, not far from the border of Nazi Germany. That same year, Irving Berlin wrote: "While the storm clouds gather, far across the sea, let us pledge allegiance to a land that’s free” – the verse of God Bless America. Different words, same thought.
Wilder’s skeptical view of marriage
Our Town’s evocation of a small New England town now seems less representative and less gripping than it did then, even to someone like me whose father grew up during those years. (He was roughly the same age as Wilder.) But the script offers other pleasures. Wilder’s skeptical view of marriage, for instance. He portrays it as a restriction of freedom, a necessary burden. The courtship of the teenaged George and Emily is touching, and their wedding-day apprehension shows the universality of young people wanting to grow up while still craving childhood's security.
Another interesting aspect of the play is the character of the choir director, an unhappy bachelor who commits suicide, showing that life in Grover’s Corner was not as carefree as it may appear to be on the surface.
It’s frustrating that the characters are, intentionally, archetypes and are not allowed much development. Just when we find ourselves caught up in the lives of these people, the Stage Manager says, "Thank you," and ushers them off the stage.
Shy smile, glowing eyes
The Arden production is well cast and well acted, especially by Rebecca Blumhagen and Peterson Townsend as Emily and George. Her shy smile and glowing eyes are appealing, while he impresses with his eagerness and fluid body language. Sherri L. Edelen, who has impressed in musical roles at the Arden and the Philadelphia Theatre Company, is outstanding in a straight dramatic role, as is the familiar and dependable Greg Wood.
The cast dazzles with its pantomime of everyday activities, like serving food and ice cream sodas and saddling a horse, accompanied by excellent sound effects.
As the Stage Manager, Eric Hissom is a no-nonsense regular guy. This helps us identify with him, but it misses the frisson that occurs when the part is played by a recognizable favorite like Paul Newman or (in the musical version) Frank Sinatra.
Wilder wrote three questions to be asked by people from the audience, and the Arden is utilizing celebrities each night for those brief lines. At the opening, the three were Governor Edward Rendell, the playwright’s nephew and a pastor of Christ Church. Even more fellowship is induced by the use of local choirs during key scenes. This is an exciting community event, although the local aspects outweigh the play itself.
To read another review by Robert Zaller, click here.
To read another review Anne R. Fabbri, click here.
To read another review by Bob Cronin, click here.
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